This invention relates generally to reflectors, and has particular reference to a novel light reflecting delineator having an arcuate reflecting surface, the delineator being specially adapted for highway use.
At the present time it is common practice to delineate or mark the edges of road shoulders by substantially flat faced delineators or reflectors supported by posts 50 to 100 feet apart. Ramps, bridges, abutments and the like are similarly marked. The delineators that are most commonly used are flat, circular reflex reflector discs made of a material such as methylmethacrylate or flat rectangular plates coated with a reflective material. These discs or plates are mounted on their support posts so that their faces or flat reflective surfaces are tipped inwardly 3.degree. from a vertical plane perpendicular to the road centerline.
The delineator discs and plates referred to just above were originated for use as auxiliary safety devices on the rear and front of vehicles, the devices serving to warn approaching vehicles with lights on of the presence of a darkened parked vehicle or of one whose lighting system may be damaged or inoperable. This being the case, these delineators have maximum reflectiveness on a line or axis perpendicular to the face of the delineator and passing through the center thereof. The amount of reflection or the intensity of the reflection drops sharply on either side of, or above or below, the axis.
With a vehicle travelling at night on a highway, the axis of each flat faced delineator is only briefly within the beam spread of the headlights and thereafter the amount of reflection drops quickly to zero. If the delineators are relatively far apart, there may be intervals between them when the vehicle receives no reflected light. In addition to the problem of only limited intervals of high reflectiveness, if the support posts for the conventional flat faced delineators are twisted or bent, as happens frequently, the reflecting surfaces may be out of the headlight beam altogether and thus unable to reflect any light.